This is Rob and Kathey Raskin of Las Vegas, and today we are bringing you another story of injustice in the foster care system, this time out of Oklahoma. Del City foster parent Melvalena Grant has been arrested on four counts each of child abuse and child neglect after being accused of beating and starving foster children who were in her care. According to court documents, the abuse of the four children was discovered during a doctor visit, when the pediatrician determined that two of the children had extreme low weight and height, with all four failing to thrive due to neglect and a lack of nutritional food. Two of the children are seven, one is four, and one is nine. The district attorney has not filed charges yet, but it is expected in the near future.

Unanswered Questions

The Del City woman, who has been a foster parent since 2013, is denying charges that she beat children with a wooden backscratcher until they bled and withheld food as punishment. Prior to becoming a foster parent, Ms. Grant passed all of her background checks, yet when police searched her home cocaine was found. Although DHS says they take allegations of abuse and neglect in foster homes seriously, we have to wonder how seriously, because these children did not become malnourished and underweight overnight. Grant has fostered a total of 23 children over the years, and this is the first time any accusations have been leveled against her. The children have since been removed from the home.

DHS has now opened an investigation into the allegations of abuse against the foster mother, it is, as we have to say far too often, too little, too late. The public is demanding to know how this level of abuse could have gone undetected if the allegations prove to be true. We, Rob and Kathey Raskin, would like to know the same.